All of Yahoo's information is out there... like I stated... a jump when she laid off 1600 people and that's it... Yahoo's information is available.
You are not reading what I'm typing Beach... No one will ever say anything like "she doesn't deserve that" in a board room because they would be a sexist asshole... People are too chicken shit to say the truth, so they say... whatever... give it to her.
In the real world, when camera's aren't running and you are discussing things where work actually gets done (which isn't the boardroom) I guarantee you the conversations occurred... they occur everywhere.
Real decisions don't happen in the boardroom... As someone who has sat on the board of so many companies... I'm sure you know this.
Part of what you say is true. I've seen how some board members will have discussed matters beforehand and have a pretty clear agenda. Can be very frustrating. I've also heard (as I mentioned earlier in this thread), men in upper management make disparaging comments about women. More than once.
That said, it is a gross overstatement to say "real decisions" don't happen in the boardroom. Yes, they do. And at the end of the day, a decision on compensation has to be justified by performance.
It sounds like you are making some pretty broad assumptions. It is unreasonable to try and explain away female CEO compensation exceeding their male counterparts based on unspoken, unwritten "special treatment," or some water cooler talk. Business is largely about making a profit. If a CEO does a good job running a company, the CEO will get paid.